That ol vaccine is still waiting to be discovered by some. A funny old thread this is, I should know. Like my ideas for a run that often come full circle in practically no time at all, it needs a formal jump start for a virus as invasive as restartitis, so...
I found the cure... but it came with a terribly high price.
I'm only 23 and played Baldur's Gate since it came out, I didn't even understand the rules back then as my game was in English and I'm French. I learned them by trial and error, creating dozens of characters with the exact same stats with only a single difference to try and guess the meaning of the words.
This game grew on me, it really did. I played a LOT of video games and still do, but no game ever came close to Baldur's Gate. When the EE came out, I still never finished the game, even the first one. Restartitis was too strong.
Finally I managed to kill Sarevok in 2013 (IIRC), probably because I played BG1 so much, I wanted to advance the story. Then I faced BG2:EE. I never played the second game before back then even though I knew so much about it from reading the internet.
I played through the main questline with the same solo FMT I finished BG1 with, I was a bit in a rush and got through the end quite fast. Then it happened again at the start of ToB, restartitis struck back. For quite some time I played the game, again and again, creating dozen of characters, half of them didn't reach Nashkel and the other half disappeared before the end of BG1.
Then I discovered the No-Reload way. It was my vaccine. As soon as I started a character, I couldn't stop playing it until it died (with only one exception, but it was a non modded game and honestly if felt really strange playing without mods anymore). It felt great and fulfilling, until I actually finished the whole saga on No-Reload SCS with Anselm, my Blackguard (December 2015, January 2016 IIRC).
From this moment, Baldur's Gate vanished from my thoughts... I was so serious about this game, spending literally hours everyday theorycrafting my team composition and my strategies... I loved this game so much!
The following months I tried to play the game again, but it wasn't the same. I would launch the game and quit it before even finishing character creation. I even tried to start a No-Reload No Pause challenge and stopped very early after Candlekeep even though it was very exciting.
The game just isn't the same for me anymore, and I suspect that Restartitis is, in fact, a way for your brain to protect you from completing this beautiful game and to be done with it, I'm quite serious about this theory. I even bought Siege of Dragonspear as it came out and never played it.
It's been a year now and I miss this game, it's still installed on my computer and I have some time to play but I can't bring myself to play it anymore. Something died within me forever when I completed the whole saga.
So... be careful what you wish for.
I wish everyone all the best! I don't visit these forums as often as I did in the past but I still lurk from time to time.
I, too, have never completed the saga. I've beaten BG1 about 5 times (old school with my conjurer who should have been a wild mage, my dwarven fighter who should have been a berserker or barbarian (solo with the +3 cursed sword of berserking), more recent years with a swashbuckler, a jester, and a berserker 7/thief 8 that I imported from The Black Pits to see how quickly I could finish the game (both in RL time and in game days time) as a solo character (I did it in one sitting, about 6-8 hours maybe).
I've started BG2 a few times, the deepest I ever got was just after you get back from the Underdark.
Now I've started playing SoD, and I think I may have found my restartitis "cure" (not to say I won't start new games, but that I keep coming back to this one). I am clearly attached to Veraka Cursebringer my jester, since I'm writing an entire epic about her, and I find that her game is the one I want to play more than any other. Maybe it's her silly, fatalistic, unwise, vindictive personality for roleplay aspects, maybe it's her weapon choices, maybe it's the access to some wizard spells, maybe it's the party full of funny-dialogue characters, but something has me hooked. I can tell you that so far this is the ONLY game of Siege of Dragonspear I've started, and with all the cool new characters and items available (not to mention a fresh plot, etc.), that's saying something.
I hope Veraka doesn't end up being my Anselm @Gotural , because it would be sad for me to leave this game behind that has brought me back for so many years. On the other hand, it would also be sad if I never saw the SoD/SoA/ToB story arc for myself, so I'll just have to hope that not being able to see everything in one go will bring me back for more.
Comments
Like my ideas for a run that often come full circle in practically no time at all, it needs a formal jump start for a virus as invasive as restartitis, so...
I'm only 23 and played Baldur's Gate since it came out, I didn't even understand the rules back then as my game was in English and I'm French. I learned them by trial and error, creating dozens of characters with the exact same stats with only a single difference to try and guess the meaning of the words.
This game grew on me, it really did. I played a LOT of video games and still do, but no game ever came close to Baldur's Gate. When the EE came out, I still never finished the game, even the first one. Restartitis was too strong.
Finally I managed to kill Sarevok in 2013 (IIRC), probably because I played BG1 so much, I wanted to advance the story. Then I faced BG2:EE. I never played the second game before back then even though I knew so much about it from reading the internet.
I played through the main questline with the same solo FMT I finished BG1 with, I was a bit in a rush and got through the end quite fast. Then it happened again at the start of ToB, restartitis struck back. For quite some time I played the game, again and again, creating dozen of characters, half of them didn't reach Nashkel and the other half disappeared before the end of BG1.
Then I discovered the No-Reload way. It was my vaccine. As soon as I started a character, I couldn't stop playing it until it died (with only one exception, but it was a non modded game and honestly if felt really strange playing without mods anymore). It felt great and fulfilling, until I actually finished the whole saga on No-Reload SCS with Anselm, my Blackguard (December 2015, January 2016 IIRC).
From this moment, Baldur's Gate vanished from my thoughts... I was so serious about this game, spending literally hours everyday theorycrafting my team composition and my strategies... I loved this game so much!
The following months I tried to play the game again, but it wasn't the same. I would launch the game and quit it before even finishing character creation. I even tried to start a No-Reload No Pause challenge and stopped very early after Candlekeep even though it was very exciting.
The game just isn't the same for me anymore, and I suspect that Restartitis is, in fact, a way for your brain to protect you from completing this beautiful game and to be done with it, I'm quite serious about this theory. I even bought Siege of Dragonspear as it came out and never played it.
It's been a year now and I miss this game, it's still installed on my computer and I have some time to play but I can't bring myself to play it anymore. Something died within me forever when I completed the whole saga.
So... be careful what you wish for.
I wish everyone all the best!
I don't visit these forums as often as I did in the past but I still lurk from time to time.
I've started BG2 a few times, the deepest I ever got was just after you get back from the Underdark.
Now I've started playing SoD, and I think I may have found my restartitis "cure" (not to say I won't start new games, but that I keep coming back to this one). I am clearly attached to Veraka Cursebringer my jester, since I'm writing an entire epic about her, and I find that her game is the one I want to play more than any other. Maybe it's her silly, fatalistic, unwise, vindictive personality for roleplay aspects, maybe it's her weapon choices, maybe it's the access to some wizard spells, maybe it's the party full of funny-dialogue characters, but something has me hooked. I can tell you that so far this is the ONLY game of Siege of Dragonspear I've started, and with all the cool new characters and items available (not to mention a fresh plot, etc.), that's saying something.
I hope Veraka doesn't end up being my Anselm @Gotural , because it would be sad for me to leave this game behind that has brought me back for so many years. On the other hand, it would also be sad if I never saw the SoD/SoA/ToB story arc for myself, so I'll just have to hope that not being able to see everything in one go will bring me back for more.